


This City's Gonna Break My Heart

by RagingBookDragon



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Humor, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Father-Son Relationship, Light Angst, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22443178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RagingBookDragon/pseuds/RagingBookDragon
Summary: Life is full of changes. For Dick Grayson, life changes at eight and it keeps changing. From becoming Robin, to leaving it and becoming Nightwing. Gotham was home for so many years. Is Blüdhaven going to be the same?
Kudos: 29





	This City's Gonna Break My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Again, I apologize for my shitty summary. But I promise the work is better! This is based on the song 'This City' by Sam Fischer, and it's from my Tumblr, 'RagingBookDragon'. I hope you enjoy! -Thorne <3

**_I’ve been seeing lonely people in crowded rooms  
Covering their old heartbreaks with new tattoos  
It’s all about smoke screens and cigarettes  
Looking through low lights and silhouettes  
But all I see is lonely people in crowded rooms_ **

There had only been two times in Dick’s life that he’d ever been completely alone. The night his parents were murdered, and now, as he sat in the dingy bar nursing a worn and weeping heart. He wanted to go home and be out on patrol, but he knew at some point he had been bound for this. To leave Gotham and leave the manor. Leaving Robin. Baby blues scanned the customers in the bar, taking in their dispositions. He could tell many of them were in the same boat. Perhaps not fighting the same broken heart he was; his heart was torn by family and trust where theirs was torn by love. His eyes landed on a couple a few feet away from him, and he listened as they flirted back and forth; something in their eyes made him wonder if their flirtation was a rouse to cover something cracked underneath the surface they had. He shifted his gaze back to his drink, staring into its contents. He stared back at himself, the loneliness creeping down his spine as he lowered his head, eyes shutting as if he could will it away.

**_This city’s gonna break my heart  
This city’s gonna love me then leave me alone  
This city’s got me chasing stars  
It’s been a couple months since I felt like I’m home  
Am I getting closer to knowing where I belong?  
This city’s gonna break my heart  
She’s always gonna break your heart, oh_ **

His body cried as he slid through his window, barely having the strength to shut it behind him as he collapsed onto the floor, hands moving to hold his left side. He couldn’t feel anything warm and wet, but pain shot through his nerves as he pressed on it telling him he’d cracked a few ribs. He chuckled weakly at it, thankful that what could be worse wasn’t.

When Dick finally managed to pick himself off the floor, he moved to his bedroom, shucking off his suit, the pieces dropping along the hallway and in his bedroom as he made his way to the bed. He eased down onto it, careful to avoid putting any pressure on his side as he sprawled onto the sheets. He turned his head, gazing out of the window. It had a couple months since he’d started up in Blüdhaven, donning Nightwing. It hadn’t been easy for him to be alone like this. He’d always been with someone, either with Bruce or with the Titans, but never _alone_. It made his chest burn, and he felt the familiar lump swell in his throat as his vision began to blur. Sometimes Blüdhaven made him feel like he was back in Gotham, the feelings of belonging beginning to seep into him, but other times, he still felt like he’d barely made a dent in his separation. Dick raised a hand, palm rubbing roughly into his chest as if he could wear away the deeply set cracks in his heart; however, he realized that the harder he rubbed, the more his vision blurred, and eventually he felt warmth flowing down his cheeks. His hand stopped, going limp against his chest as he felt his heart breaking.

**_I remember mornings when my head didn’t hurt  
And I remember nights when art didn’t feel like work  
She wakes up at noon and she’s out ‘til three  
She leaves her perfume all over me  
But I remember mornings when my head didn’t hurt_ **

He could feel the sun shining along his face and he grimaced, twisting in the sheets to burrow his face into his pillow. The pounding in his head seemed to worsen as sleep began to escape him, and Dick groaned lowly, rubbing his face into the fabric. When it became apparent that he wasn’t going back to sleep, he sighed, pushing himself up onto his arms. A sharp stab spread across the back of his neck, up to his head and he winced as the invisible band started to tighten around his skull.

Fighting it back, he left his bed, trudging into his living room. He looked outside the window, seeing the sun peeking from between the buildings across the street. He shifted, glancing at the clock, realizing that he’d only been home a couple hours. He sunk down onto the couch, eyes lazily staring up at the ceiling. Dick kicked his legs out but stopped when he felt something touch his foot. He sat up, looking down to see the top of his suit; he bent down, picking it up before he slouched back into the cushions. The tear in the arm was still there, fingers slipping in between the cloth. He let out a sigh, looking for a sewing kit. He knew he had one; Alfred had sent it to him in one of the care packages.

When he found it, he threaded the needle, fumbling the metal through the suit top. He didn’t have the energy to make it perfect, and as he pulled it away and examined it, he realized that fixing and designing his suit and gadgets wasn’t passionate to him anymore; it felt like work more than anything, and he dropped his head onto the back of the couch, eyes finding the ceiling once more as his grip went lax.

**_This city’s gonna break my heart  
This city’s gonna love me then leave me alone  
This city’s got me chasing stars  
It’s been a couple months since I felt like I’m home  
Am I getting closer to knowing where I belong?  
This city’s gonna break my heart  
She’s always gonna break your heart, oh_ **

He stood along the ledge of a building, observing the city before him. The months had gotten easier as they’d gone by, the thoughts changing from ‘this isn’t home’ to ‘this is starting to feel like home’. Dick drug his eyes from the city for a moment to look up at the night sky. Millions of stars stared back at him, and for a second he wondered if this life he lived now was just a chasing of the stars. A complicated race between him and an uncatchable target; a life he lived and the life he wanted, one where there wasn’t a divide between him and his father. He’d met the new boy his father had taken in. Jason, his name was. Good kid, he thought, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that _he_ was his _replacement_. Dick shook his head, and a siren sounded in the distance and he dropped his eyes from the sky to the rooftops, letting out a sigh as he began hopping ledges towards it.

**_She got a hold on me  
She got me wrapped around her finger  
She got a hold on me  
She got me wrapped around her finger, oh yeah_ **

Dick shut the front door behind him, shucking off his jacket before hanging it on his coat rack, feet carrying him to the couch. He dropped onto it, groaning in relief as he felt his body begin to relax. It’s good to be home, he thought, and the second he did, his breathing stuttered. He didn’t know when it had changed, but it certainly had. The words flowed out of his mouth in conversations now, when people asked where home was. Gotham no longer crossed his lips, instead, Blüdhaven rolled off his tongue. Dick took a breath, feeling the air begin to ease back in and out of his lungs. Blüdhaven no longer felt like a stranger to him; it felt…like home.

**_This city’s gonna break my heart  
This city’s gonna love me then leave me alone  
This city’s got me chasing stars  
It’s been a couple of months since I felt like I’m home  
Am I getting closer to knowing where I belong?  
This city’s gonna break my heart  
She’s always gonna break your heart, oh_ **

He stepped into his room, eyes widening in surprise at his brothers sitting huddled on his bed; the words came out before he could stop them. “What are you three doing in my bedroom?” Their heads swiveled in his direction and Damian held up a photo.

“Where was this taken Richard?” Dick’s eyebrows furrowed and he dropped his laundry basket, crossing the room to pluck the photo from his fingers. He glanced at it, seeing him, Roy, and Wally, sandwiched together on a couch; he smiled, eyes crinkling and quipped,

“Oh, that’s from when I was in Blüdhaven a few years ago.”

“How come you don’t live over there anymore Dickhead?” He rolled his eyes at Jason’s insult, placing the photo back before climbing behind them, looking into the box.

“Well, can’t leave Bruce alone to handle the circus.” He nudged his brothers. “Someone’s gotta keep you guys in check.” Tim stared at him, blinking unamused.

“Dick. You’re the only one of us that actually gets in trouble.” Damian grunted, tipping his head at Jason.

“Todd does too, but that is a fair point.”

“Hey, I’m not that bad!”

“Jason, you shoot people.”

“Well not that much anymore!”

“You’ve made up for it in brutal beatings.”

“Wow Two-Bit. It’s almost as if getting beaten to death by a crowbar makes me want to make others feel pain.”

“This is why Father doesn’t trust you.”

“Say it to my face you little shi-” The sound of a fist smacking someone’s cheek cut Jason off, and Dick watched Damian fly into him. As if they were dominoes, Jason landed against Tim, crushing him into the bed; he yelped, trying to scramble out from the two fighting boys.

“HEY! LEAVE ME OUT OF THIS! I DIDN’T DO JACK!” The two didn’t pay any mind to his cries and he yelled for his eldest brother. “DICK DO SOMETHING! I’M BEGGING YOU!” Dick chuckled, leaning over to wrap an arm around Damian and tug him away. As he closed in on him, Damian’s arm came back, and his elbow went into Dick’s nose; he let out a curse, reaching up to hold his face. His brothers stilled as they watched crimson liquid leak from between Dick’s fingers. Dick lowered his hands to stare at them, and his eyes widened momentarily, then hardened and he shifted his gaze to his brothers; he pointed at them and warned,

“Start running. I’m giving you ten seconds to get a head start.” It was all the warning they needed, scrambling across the comforter to the door, each diving out after the other. Dick clambered out of the bed, hand reaching for a shirt laying haphazardly on the ground. He held it against his nose and took a step, but stopped and reached down, plucking the picture from the box; he grinned at it, propping it up on his nightstand next to the other pictures of his family. He moved to the door, stepped out and yelled, “READY OR NOT! HERE I COME!” Their screeches could be heard from down the halls and a wicked smirk crossed his lips as he began hunting.

**_This city’s gonna break my heart, hey  
She’s always gonna break your heart._ **


End file.
